Month: October 2012

Henze’s Last Interview, Possibly

Below, a short extract of an interview with recently deceased composer Hans Werner Henze. The interview was conducted by David Patrick Stearns & published on his Condemned to Music blog on ArtsJournalBlogs. You can read the piece in toto here: Q: Whenever I tell people the plot of Elegy for Young Lovers, their jaws drop. They can’t believe an opera has such a fearlessly outrageous story – a ruthless, egomaniacal poet named Mittenhofer … Read more Henze’s Last Interview, Possibly

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It’s Out! It’s Out!…

Great joy as late last night I got back to Brooklyn from Albany & found the book package in the mailbox to be a volume I have been eagerly awaiting for over a decade now. Finally, here it is: Thanks are due to Peter Quartermain for an superb job as editor of the volume & for his brilliant introduction. Below, the description the University of California press gives, and which you can find online … Read more It’s Out! It’s Out!…

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Rachida Madani in Jadaliyya

Check out the excellent poems by Moroccan poet Rachida Madani as translated by Marilyn Hacker & just published by Jadaliyya. The first one is reproduced below; read the others here.   TALES OF A SEVERED HEAD Rachida Madani Translated by Marilyn Hacker   The First Tale I What city and what night since it’s night in the city when a woman and a train-station argue over the same half of a man who is … Read more Rachida Madani in Jadaliyya

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Iain Sinclair’s Lud Heat

Iain Sinclair is best known today as a novelist — though I have always had a preference for his earlier work in poetry. I am therefore very pleased to see that the book I think of as his best, Lud Heat, has just been reissued by Skylight Press, & is thus available again both here in the US & in the UK. This new edition has a preface by … Read more Iain Sinclair’s Lud Heat

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Happy 80th Michael McClure!

Paul Nelson has a nice tribute for Michael McClure on his 80th b-day on his site. Opening paras here; the whole shebang here.   by SPLABMAN on OCTOBER 19, 2012 · LEAVE A COMMENT Michael McClure turns 80 today, October 20, 2012. A leading USAmerican poet, playwright, essayist and novelist, he was born in Kansas, but spent some of his formative years in Seattle and is considered a Black Mountain poet, a Beat poet and … Read more Happy 80th Michael McClure!

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Avnery on Debate

Here’s Uri Avnery’s take on the 2nd debate & beyond:   The Man with the Uzi THERE WAS this young Israeli who was captured by cannibals. They put him in the cooking pot and were about to light the fire, when he expressed one last wish: “Please box my ears!” When the cannibal chief obliged, the Israeli jumped up, leveled his Uzi and mowed down his captors. “If you … Read more Avnery on Debate

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